Mission trip volunteers' trailer stolen en route to help

Group was headed to help church community in Las Vegas

A group of mission workers was headed to help individuals in need, but the workers' trip came to a halt when they realized their supplies had been stolen.

A missionary group of 70 church members are in Las Vegas, and mission workers said they are left with only the clothes on their back.

They were planning on doing construction work on a few churches, hosting a vacation bible study and putting on a youth sports camp for a police department there.

A family used a trailer to transport everyone’s belongings and supplies to Las Vegas.

"We estimated that probably in the trailer alone was $50,000 in supplies and things we were going to use in Las Vegas," said Deacon Ken Ford of Burlington Baptist Church.

Thursday night, that family stopped only a mile away from its hotel in Vegas to get food at a Chili’s restaurant. When family members returned to their vehicle, the truck, trailer and all the supplies had been stolen.

"For lack of a better way of putting it, was sort of like a 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas' moment," Ford said. At the very onset, everybody was in shock and it took a little while and we talked about it. We prayed about it and ultimately it came down to we are here to do a job and with or without the supplies, we are gonna do the job. We are gonna find a way to get it done."

The deacon said several local churches in the Las Vegas area have helped out by donating supplies.

Burlington Baptist Church said they plan to take up a collection Sunday to send to Vegas, so the group can continue the work it set out to do. While stolen supplies won't make the intended difference, church members said they hope that perhaps there is a bigger plan for that too.

"When they are rooting through the stuff in that trailer there is a lot of Bibles in there. Maybe they will read one of those and maybe it won't all be a loss," Ford said.

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